Rocky could not sleep properly the night after his fight with Zhi.


    While he was still pissed at the Gemini Gods, he was more pissed at himself and the way he fought.


    After fighting Zhi, Rocky realized that he was a pretty one dimensional fighter.


    He had good swordsmanship skills and natural body strength, however, that was pretty much it.


    He was like a one trick pony with no creativity, as once someone neutralized his sword skills and his strength, he had nothing else to fall back on.


    He had no moves that could help him safely retreat.


    He had no defensive maneuvers under his belt.


    He had no special movement techniques under his belt.


    He had no creative attacks under his belt that were not rted to the sword.


    He was a very iplete and wed fighter, however, because he was much stronger and skilled than his peers at the university, he never realized just how weak he really was.


    "I need to grow stronger…. I need to grow a lot stronger" Rocky murmured to himself as he made a mental note to improve on every aspect that hecked.


    After fighting Zhi he realized that without a foundation in defense, stamina, movement and a variety in offense, he would stagnate as a one dimensional fighter and that to be truly exceptional, he needed to have many options on the chessboard.


    ***********


    From the next day, Rocky changed his approach to training, as instead of furthering his mastery in the sword, he began sparring with Professor Mae and Professor Maven with the sole intention of perfecting his defense.


    Requesting the professors to go as hard on him as they could, Rocky took an absolute beating while facing them, however, he tried to get ustomed to their superior speed and strength and tried his best to withstand it.


    Naturally since it was his first day against them, who were both tier4 warriors with several years of experience under their belt, he could not survive even 20 whole seconds against them, however, he could instantly reflect on his mistakes after every short sparring round that they had.


    Having photographic memory, he could perfectly recall every spar that he had and where he made a mistake.


    This critical thinking helped him improve on his defensive style as he made rapid progress on analyzing his shorings and trying to improve upon them.


    Learning moves like basic [ Wind Wall ] [ Fire Barrier ] and the like, Rocky used his quadra-elemental affinity to learn basic blocking spells that could help him create temporary separation against his enemy.


    Even with the sword, he started to focus on learning maneuvers that could help him retreat tactically, while also starting on his practice of movement techniques.


    By expanding his training routine from training only his body and sword, to having a deep and profound foundation, Rocky started to improve holistically, while also focusing on climbing the tower every Sunday.


    Alongside Erin and Buhara, who were also developing rapidly on their own, the trio sessfullypleted their floor raids for floor 14-15-16-17 in the next four Sunday''s, as theypleted the ascension quest assigned to their team wlessly.


    Having extensively studied about the floors, the types of monsters that inhabited the floors and the local life, the trio found clearing these floor raids as easy as taking a stroll in the park, as not only were their individual strengths exceptional, but coupled with their knowledge of the terrain and the monster weaknesses, it became really easy for them to strategize and clear whatever quest they received.


    However, most importantly, their gelling with one another improved massively as they slowly started to work like a unit versus individually, as Rocky''s future champions party finally seemed like it wasing together nicely.


    With only five weeks of university life left before the final evaluation began, all three of them seemed dead set on making the most of their time at the university, as they wished to graduate with the best possible grades and after having made the most of the resources avable at the university for them.


    ********


    ( Meanwhile Sophia )


    Sophia entered her rebellious phase after Rocky''s fight with Zhi as she became convinced that her own family was sabotaging her growth.


    From the moment Rocky''s fight against Zhi began, oddly Sophia found herself secretly rooting for Zhi to win instead of Rocky, as she hoped that Zhi winning over Rocky would lessen the humiliation of her own defeat.


    When Rocky was on the backfoot, she secretly felt happy and gleeful as she could not wait to see him defeated and humiliated the same way she was, however, just when it looked like Rocky''s defeat was assured, it was Gemini who intervened and helped him win.


    Somehow, Gemini helping Rocky during his time of need upset Sophia so much, that she stopped responding to all letters from her family from that day onwards.


    The seeds of doubt that Rocky had nted in her mind, regarding her family not being supportive and being really toxic, finally started to bloom when she saw how supportive Gemini was for Rocky, as she became mentally convinced that all True Gods must secretly help their Champion''s a lot, however, her grandfather Poseidon did not.


    She felt as if, all three of her male family members, her grandfather, father and brother, were unfairly unhelpful when it came to her and were the sole reason behind why she did not blossom as a warrior.


    These distractions made her feel unmotivated to train hard, as her performance during sses began to visibly dip as even normal ssmates started to make her sweat during spars.


    Overall, it was a difficult downward spiral for her as she genuinely considered cutting ties with her family in favor of joining forces with Rocky, Erin and Buhara who seemed to grow closer and closer each day.


    Rocky''s kind and caring attitude towards her only made this idea of defecting even stronger, as when hepared his treatment to that of her family, Sophia felt as if Rocky was a dozen times better than them, as she slowly but surely started to fall deeper and deeper into Rocky''s trap.


    ***********


    ( Meanwhile Principal Liam )


    With Sophia not responding to any letters by Perseus, the 21st floor floormaster had no other choice but to dispatch spies to the university for nourishment of young talents to check on his sister.


    While he did not send assassin''s and only sent scouts and spies, for Liam there was no differentiation between the three, as for him anyone who entered the university grounds illegally became a potential threat.


    While Maven dealt with as many of these threats as he could, when they tried to infiltrate the university inrge numbers, Liam was forced to act personally, as he mobilized his army of specters to kill all invaders.


    In his unstable state of mind, the usage of his powers only made his condition worse, as his mood became even more erratic than usual and his sanity seemed to hang by a very thin thread.


    The gap between himself and insanity was now so small, that even the slightest disturbance could push him over the edge, which was why Maven employed additional security for the university and ced several professor''s on patrol duty to ensure that Liam did not need to act personally, even if a security threat did arise.


    **********


    ( Meanwhile Perseus )


    Unable to contact Sophia for the past four weeks, Perseus began to slowly lose his mind.


    He immediately began fearing the worst,  that Rocky had somehow kidnapped Sophia and was holding her hostage in exchange for his sister, however, because he did not receive a negotiation letter from Rocky either, he felt like the reality of the situation might not be as grim as he imagined it to be.


    His second and third guesses were that Sophia was either nning on defecting or had already joined hands with Rocky.


    These oues made his heart boil with rage, as he vowed to kill Sophia himself if she ever really betrayed the family.


    Finally, he also felt like his sister might just be upset and acting like a brat, which enraged him even more.


    He knew she was a spoiled princess and that after he scolded her too much, there was a possibility of her acting out, however, he hoped that she would behave more maturely, especially in such trying times when the True Elites were preparing for a floor raid against him.


    "When will this girl grow up? She''s giving me so many headaches as if I don''t already have enough of them on my te" heined, as he shook his head and sighed.


    "Send morepetent scouts to check on her…. Say that we''ll pay thrice the usual price of their assignment, but just get it done …" hemanded his assistant, as he requested for even more scouts to be sent to the university, unaware, that his actions were about to start a chain reaction, that he could never have anticipated.